The client
A packaged food and beverage manufacturer running three production lines across two shifts, with around 420 staff, two warehouses and more than 600 active raw material and packaging items. The business sells to distributors, supermarkets and institutional buyers.
The challenge
Growth had outpaced the company's systems. Production planning lived in spreadsheets maintained by the plant manager. Stores issued materials against handwritten requisitions. Purchasing was done by phone and email, and the accounting package only saw supplier invoices weeks later.
The finance director summarised four problems:
- No reliable product cost. Standard costs had not been updated in two years. Nobody could say with confidence which products were profitable after raw material price increases.
- Stock losses. Annual stock counts showed large unexplained differences, particularly in packaging materials and high-value ingredients. Write-offs were rising each year.
- Weak procurement control. Many purchases had only one quote. Some orders were split to stay under approval limits. Prices for the same item varied widely between orders.
- Slow month-end. The month-end close took 12 working days because stock valuations, accruals and cost allocations were calculated manually.
The board wanted better margins and fewer surprises before approving a planned fourth production line.
What we deployed
We implemented our project and manufacturing ERP with integrated procurement, inventory and finance modules:
- Bills of materials and routings for every finished product, with standard costs updated from actual purchase prices each month.
- Production orders for each batch, with materials issued against the order by barcode scanning in stores.
- Inventory control across both warehouses with bin locations, batch numbers, expiry dates and cycle counts.
- Requisition to payment procurement with budget checks, a minimum of three quotes for purchases above a set threshold, approval limits by role and three-way matching.
- Split order detection that flags multiple orders to the same supplier for similar items within a short window.
- Integrated finance so that every receipt, issue and production completion posts to the ledger automatically.
- A daily plant report emailed at 06:30 to the managing director, plant manager and finance director.
How we delivered
| Phase | Timing | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Ready-to-use core | Days 1 to 3 | Finance, procurement and inventory configured on the standard template. Chart of accounts, suppliers and item master loaded. First purchase orders raised in the system on day 3. |
| Production module | Weeks 2 to 4 | Bills of materials built with the plant team. Production orders piloted on one line, then rolled out to all three. |
| Stock take and go-live of perpetual inventory | Week 5 | Full count, opening balances agreed with auditors, barcode issuing switched on. |
| Reporting and automation | Weeks 6 to 7 | Daily plant report, weekly procurement report and monthly management pack automated. Staff training completed. |
The business never stopped buying or producing. The core went live in three days and every further module was added on top of a working system.
Results after twelve months
| Measure | Before | After | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stock write-offs as share of inventory value | 4.1% | 2.5% | 38% lower |
| Month-end close | 12 working days | 4 working days | 8 days faster |
| Purchases with three or more quotes (above threshold) | 31% | 96% | Policy now enforced |
| Average procurement cost on top 50 items | Baseline | 11% lower | Competitive quotes and price history |
| Raw material usage variance against standard | Not measured | Reported daily | New visibility |
| Time to produce product profitability report | 3 weeks, quarterly | Same day, on demand | Live |
Reporting that changed decisions
The daily plant report became the first thing the leadership team read each morning. It shows output by line, yield, scrap, material usage against standard and the three biggest cost variances from the previous day.
Within the first two months the report highlighted that one product line was consistently using 6% more of a costly ingredient than the recipe allowed. The cause was a calibration fault on a dosing unit. Fixing it paid for the entire implementation within the first quarter.
Product profitability reporting also changed the commercial conversation. Two low-margin products were repriced and one was discontinued, while sales effort shifted to products with stronger margins.
What made the difference
- Starting live, not perfect. Launching the ready-to-use core in three days gave staff a working system immediately and built confidence for the next phases.
- Controls inside the workflow. Quote requirements, approval limits and three-way matching are enforced by the software. Nobody needs to remember the policy.
- One source of truth. Production, stores, procurement and finance work in the same system, so the numbers in the plant report and the management accounts agree.
- Automated reporting. Managers receive the information they need without asking for it, so decisions are made with current data.
The board approved the fourth production line on the strength of reliable cost and margin data.
Client identity withheld under a confidentiality agreement. Figures are drawn from the client's before-and-after reporting for the engagement period; outcomes for your business will depend on your starting point and scope.